Paris: 32 perspectives, fragments of humanity, to celebrate the diversity of the peasants around the world
From November 21, 2024 to January 13, 2025, a large-format photography exhibition will be held on the grounds of the Saint-Jacques Tower (39, rue de Rivoli, 75004 Paris) to raise awareness of La Via Campesina, the international peasant movement, among Parisians and visitors from around the world during this time of year.
Since November 2021, the international secretariat of La Via Campesina has been located on the premises of the Confédération paysanne in Bagnolet (France), but the movement and its actions remain little known to the general public.
Organized in partnership with the City of Paris, the exhibition ~ La Via Campesina: The Diversity of Peasants Who Feed and Protect the World ~ highlights the central role of us, the peasants, and our work.
Whether in the fields, on the farms, in the markets, in social mobilizations or in advocacy in international bodies, we peasants, landless workers, Indigenous Peoples, pastoralists, fisherfolk, migrant workers and small and medium farmers play a fundamental role in maintaining and defending peasant agriculture. Through this work, we fight poverty, hunger and climate crises every day.
The portraits and scenes presented in this exhibition, taken between 2003 and 2024 by activists and allied photographers of La Via Campesina, illustrate the richness of our movement and the diversity of its 180 member organizations spread over five continents.
From the coffee fields of Honduras, to the vegetable gardens of Brazil and Mozambique, through the olive groves of Palestine, the rice fields of Bangladesh, the meadows of France, and the food plots of Indonesia, a wide variety of situations and production systems are juxtaposed along these grids.
These images also bear witness to our protests against the World Trade Organization and in favor of food sovereignty, the preservation of the commons, peasant seeds and life in general. The common thread of solidarity and unity, which is present in the background of all these struggles, connects all these photographs.
Finally, with these faces we want to celebrate those who defend peasant agriculture on a daily basis and ensure its continuity, especially young and older generations, as well as women and people of diverse genders who are setting up in agriculture.
WHEN? WHERE?
THE EXHIBITION
The exhibition opens on November 21 at 14:00 on the Saint-Jacques Tower Square, in the presence of several representatives of La Via Campesina and leading figures from the City of Paris.
THE PRESS CONFERENCE
The opening will be followed by a press conference at 15:00 at the CCFD-Terre Solidaire office (4 rue Jean Lantier, 75001 Paris, salle Monseigneur, 2nd floor), which will end with a snack at about 16:30.
This press conference will be an opportunity to understand the values that unite the members of La Via Campesina and celebrate our diversity.
You will be able to ask members of the International Coordinating Committee of La Via Campesina, as well as the national secretariat of the Confédération paysanne and the Mouvement de Défense des Exploitants Familiaux (MODEF), about the importance of our global movement, our demands for food sovereignty and a new framework for international agricultural trade, especially in this final stages of the EU-Mercosur agreement.
We will also present the role of peasant agriculture in the struggle against the effects of climate change, and La Via Campesina’s struggles for access to the commons and land, the protection of seeds, the struggle against imperialism, for justice and peace.
For more information and interview requests:
- press@viacampesina.org
- Caroline Nugues, communications officer of Confédération Paysanne : 06 95 29 80 78
- Alexis Vanypre, National Coordinator of MODEF: 06 40 18 83 12
Members of the International Coordinating Committee of La Via Campesina and the national secretariats of Confédération Paysanne and MODEF, who will be present at the inauguration and press conference:
- Khadija Rhamiri – International Coordination Committee of La Via Campesina / National Confederation of the Agricultural Sector (Morocco).
- Nury Martinez – International Coordination Committee of La Via Campesina / FENSUAGRO (Colombia)
- Morgan Ody – General Coordinator of La Via Campesina / Confédération paysanne (France)
- Laurence Marandola – Spokesperson, Confédération paysanne (France)
- Sylvie Colas – International Commission of the Confédération paysanne (France)
- Pierre Thomas, co- President of the Mouvement de défense des exploitants familiaux – MODEF (France)